The Road to the Final Four - Part Three: Stuck in San Antonio

On the day of the Championship Game, I was losing my mind.

We had been staying in our hotel, the Holiday Inn Express, ten minutes away from downtown, killing time, sleeping in our rooms, surfing the net, or watching TV. Little things started to get to me.

Like our toiletries:



Regular hotels would label their little bottles with, you know, nouns. But not the Holiday Inn Express! They would rather you associate the correct verb to their bath products. Call it a learning experience. I'm pretty sure I washed my hair with body lotion all weekend.

The three of us decided to spend the final hours before tip-off wandering this great city. So what do you see in San Antonio? Well, obviously:



The Alamo. It's a lot smaller than I pictured it. And there's nothing particularly special about it. It's just...there.

We then took the half-hour boat tour of the Riverwalk, which is not unlike taking the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland. Except on these boats, you can consume alcohol liberally. Passing by all the swanky restaurants and bars, I noticed a lot of these stores:



There wasn't much official liscense Kansas or Memphis merchandise. But plenty of UCLA and UNC liscense merchandise were available.

We wanted to watch the final somewhere where the beer was flowing and TVs large; Somewhere classy. Somewhere that's genuinely San Antonio.

We went here:



People I know always look down on Hooters, but not me. Where else can you experience fine "Riverwalk Dinning"? Nowhere, I say.

Four hours and 5o hot wings later, Ry, J and I were at peace. Kansas had won the title, the Holiday Inn Express (otherwise known as Jayhawk Central) was jumping. We were exhausted. Also, the hot wings were starting to affect our bodies. I started to hallucinate. It was time to return to L.A.
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San Antonio is a great host city. From the moment I stepped out of the plane, I felt like a welcomed guest seeing his distant uncle for the first time. The people are friendly and the food is fantastic. I wish things could have turned out better for us. But the Alamo City did it's best to comfort me.

Thanks, San Antonio.